1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to video entertainment and data management systems for passenger vehicles such as aircraft, and more specifically to a system including individual video terminals provided at passenger seats for display of video programs and interactive system control.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commercial airline companies are constantly striving to provide improved services for their customers. Inflight movies projected on a screen which is visible to all of the passengers in a particular section of an aircraft cabin are standard in the industry. However, the movies to be shown on each flight are selected by the airline company, and may not appeal to all of the passengers.
It is therefore desirable to provide each passenger with an individual means for viewing a movie of his or her choice. This capability is made possible by the development of small, flat-screen video monitors or terminals which can be provided at each passenger seat. The passengers may select the movies they wish to watch from a number of movies being supplied simultaneously over a multiplexed video cable system. The terminals may also include video tape players (VTRs) which enable the passengers to select the movies they wish to watch from a library of video tapes available in the aircraft.
Various configurations of personal video monitors and players have been proposed as illustrated in an advertisement by the Airvision company in Air Transport World magazine, April 1990, page 99. These include monitors mounted in seatbacks, and on trays which fold down from the seatbacks. For front row seats with no seatbacks in front of them, the monitors may be rigidly mounted on the armrests or consoles between the seats. Monitors may also be attached to the ends of telescoping arms which extend upwardly from consoles or armrests.
The volume level, channel selection, tape play/stop and other rudimentary functions of these conventional video monitors and tape players are controlled by simple membrane switches located in the seat armrest console. This arrangement is inconvenient in that the control switches are located in a position remote from the monitors, and the passengers must locate the switches and manipulate them by feel while viewing the screen.
The conventional arrangement is also disadvantageous to construct since connecting cables must be provided between the control switches and monitors. This is especially problematic in an installation in which the monitors are mounted in the seatbacks of the forward seats, since the cables must extend between the seat in which the switches are provided and the forward seats.
Passenger services such as food and drink orders, on-board and mail-order sales, placing of telephone calls, etc. are conventionally provided manually by flight attendants. This is inefficient since the flight attendant must first go to each individual passenger seat to verbally determine the item or service the passenger requires, and then go to the passenger seats again to provide the item or service. In addition, payment for requested items, especially involving conversion between foreign currencies or the use of credit cards, is inefficient and time consuming.